B2B Digital Platform Trends In 2020

As Forrester predicts, the future is bright for digital marketing by 2023. Important shifts in B2B from B2C inspire more Millennial buyers to spend. As 2020 is about to close, here are the top B2B digital platform trends during this year:

B2B online shops morph into service platforms

As B2B shifts to the internet, personal contact with the dealer remains a mainstay. That’s because customers don’t always receive online answers to their questions. About 76% of customers need a personal sales representative before deciding to buy new products.

In 2020, B2B digital platforms let the simple web stores migrate to an e-commerce platform that offers a range of services. This setup allows the B2B participants to have product information and specifications and make appointments for one-to-one advice.

B2B buyers do it by themselves

Full-fledged B2B platforms offer an explosion of content. Buyers can find products that are worth knowing and also the online shop that sells them.

Since the buyer has all the information about the products, it boosts the buyer’s independence in decision-making. B2B digital platforms become self-service portals where buyers aren’t slowed down by needing to contact sales representatives.

What helps this system are the knowledge databases in the form of FAQs, blog posts, guides, video instructions, and other content. B2B participants can have a one-stop-shop authority that most customers need.

Marketplaces remain dominant

Marketplaces are becoming a backbone in B2B platforms. Buyers love them since it allows the use of filters to search for specific items. Comparing prices and products becomes easier. Most platforms also let buyers compare the cost of different suppliers and their delivery times.

Industry analysts predict that in two years, half of all B2B e-commerce orders will happen through a marketplace. The downside of this is that sellers are limited to how products are ranked and presented.

Everything now boils down to B2B

All the innovation demands of B2C eventually came down to B2B. Among all the advantages, speed is the most notable one. As B2B customers demand faster service, B2B platforms realize this need with shorter checkouts, quick re-orders, and speedy delivery.

The most prominent modern B2B platform offers automated shopping list suggestions. This shows the power of the database. The order history and a catalog of matching products in the platform are available to the clients.

Another trend in B2B digital platforms is that buyers can build in Excel their order list. The list is complete with SKUs and the number of items per category, speeding up the checkout process and the overall purchase flow.

Conclusion

Technological changes continue to speed up as the new decade deepens. For B2B businesses to stay relevant, taking advantage of B2B digital platforms is key. These channels have functionalities that tackle diverse requirements for the buyers.

The top four B2B digital platform trends in 2020 listed above are a few of the driving forces that can transform this sector. Nuclu aims to offer such advantages to its users as its network of B2B participants widen, offering better online marketing solutions for everyone.